1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper feeding cassette used for a printer, a copying machine or the like, and more particularly, to a paper feeding cassette having a simple construction which is capable of feeding various sizes of papers with a single cassette.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various kinds of different-sized papers, such as A3-size, A4-size, B5-size, letter-size and legal-size have been used in a printer or a copying machine. These papers are contained in a paper feeding cassette and at the time of printing or copying (hereinafter jointly referred to as image production apparatus) they are separated one at a time to be automatically fed into the apparatus, such as the printer or the copying machine, from the paper feeding cassette.
FIGS. 6 and 7 show the construction of the conventional paper feeding cassette. In a cassette body b which constitutes a paper feeding cassette a, a rear-edge positioning plate c for controlling the rear-edge position of papers P . . . and a movable side plate d for controlling the position of the side-edge surfaces of the papers P . . . are provided. At a forward portion of the cassette body b, a press-contact plate e is provided. The press-contact plate e is pressed upward by a pair of springs f and a pair of auxiliary springs g to press elastically the uppermost paper P against feed rollers h provided at the printer, copying machine or the like.
Recently, with the reduction in the size of apparatuses such as a printer and a copying machine or the like, a demand for substantially reducing the thickness of the paper feeding cassette to be mounted on the apparatus has increased. In addition, a demand for reducing the cost of the paper feeding cassette has also increased.
However, since the conventional paper feeding cassette includes numerous parts as described above, the press-contact plate e and the mechanisms for pushing upward the press-contact plate e, it is difficult to reduce the size thereof by reducing its thickness, and it is also difficult to reduce the cost thereof.